First published in 2019 by Oberon Books Ltd
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Copyright Rebecca Biscuit & Louise Mothersole, 2019
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PB ISBN: 9781786829788
E ISBN: 9781786829795
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Art design: Doug Kerr
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The Stage
Time Out
Evening Standard
Contents
Originally commissioned by Charlie Cauchi for Valletta 2018. Co-commissioned by South Street Arts Reading & Camden Peoples Theatre.
Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum With Expats premiered at Summerhall for the Edinburgh Fringe 2019.
Thank you to Charlie Cauchi for inviting us to her country and for making this happen. Thank you to Jen Smethurst, our Art Mum. Thanks to Adam Brace for being the best (and, thus far, only) Direc-turg in the world. Thank you to Jessica Sweet for the many little sh!ts you gave to help the show. Thank you to The Pub the best bar and the best people. Thank you to Neil Falzon and Dr Maria Pisani for their help and the work they do. Thanks to Show & Tell and to the Soho Theatre who continue to take a chance on some Sh!ts. Thank you to Seb Burlo for the amazing cartoons. Thank you to Matthew Caruana Galizia for allowing us to tell his mothers story. Special thanks to everyone we got pissed with, we couldnt have made this without you.
Introduction by Sh!t Theatre
This year we were supposed to be writing a show called No Refunds. We paid a black witch on the internet to help sell our souls to Satan, we tried to win the lottery, and we had a human-sized hamster wheel made that almost killed us live on stage at a work-in-progress showing. We werent supposed to be making this show. When we were invited to Malta for Valletta European Capital of Culture (DING!) we genuinely thought wed have a free holiday, interview some expats, get pissed with our friend Charlie, and that would be that.
Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum With Expats isnt really about Malta. Or, its not just about Malta.
Were writing this as our country prepares to voluntarily hand back European citizenship whilst hundreds have already died this year in the Mediterranean trying to get it. The European Union created and fund Operation Sophia, a rescue operation in the Med with no rescue ships. The funds instead go to the Libyan Coastguard to protect their borders, which means funding detention centres, militia, kidnapping, sexual violence, torture.
At the same time, the EU allows the purchase of that same citizenship to those with enough money to be above immigration laws and, as Daphne Caruana Galizia exposed, other laws as well. We interviewed Dr Maria Pisani, a Maltese professor of immigration. She told us:
The Mediterranean is the most deadly crossing in the world. People are dying people are being left to die in our name. Not only that, policies are being implemented to ensure that people drown. In our name. Today people cant say they didnt know. They chose to ignore it. You dont get to say you didnt know. You knew, you just chose to ignore it.
I think in a few years time well have monuments. And the equivalent of the poppy.
There arent poppies yet for the thousands who have perished in the journey to be European. But you can buy this book. And pin that to your lapel. We think that would look nice. You just need a big safety pin. But maybe actually dont do that. The money just goes to us and our publishers. Tell you what, just donate here:
Refugee-action.org.uk
Golden passports threaten European security, warns EU commissioner
This article by Juliette Garside and Hilary Osborne was first published in The Guardian as part of The Daphne Project a group of 45 journalists representing 18 news organisations from 15 countries who picked up Daphnes work after it was abruptly halted.
Europes security is being put at risk by so-called golden passport schemes that have allowed states to sell citizenship or residency to potentially dangerous individuals, the EU justice commissioner has warned.
Vra Jourov described the programmes as problematic and unfair echoing the private concerns of Europes intelligence agencies, who fear golden passports have been exploited by people with enough money to buy access to the UK and Europe.
Her comments came as Malta and Cyprus were named in a blacklist of 21 nations operating passport schemes that are deemed to pose a high risk of tax evasion. The list was published on Tuesday by the OECD, a leading thinktank, which wants tighter controls. The two EU member states have already sold citizenship to hundreds of individuals from Russia, China and the Middle East.
Jourov said making money was being put before security. I understand that citizenship schemes are favourable for the economy. But this is unfair for the people who cannot afford to buy citizenship. And citizenship is something so, so big and so valuable that citizenship for sale seems for me rather problematic.
She added: We have legitimate concerns, because if in one country a dangerous person gets citizenship, he gets citizenship for the whole of Europe. Maybe we all have to renegotiate the whole system and the whole competence of Europe. Because there is a contradiction.
Once we have some weak points in the EU, some weak points where it is easy to enter the space, the whole of Europe has a problem.
British intelligence is also known to be deeply unhappy about the schemes. It is not just a concern for us, it is a concern for everyone, said a Whitehall source.
